After the Exhibition

Starred review from May 19, 2014
In Gordon-Smith’s excellent eighth mystery set in 1920s England (after 2013’s Blood from a Stone), Betty Wingate, the impoverished daughter of a solicitor, tells amateur detective Jack Haldean of a horrific encounter. One night, while walking home in Whimbrell Heath, a village about an hour south of London by train, Betty stopped by the cottage of Carlotta Bianchi, a woman of dubious reputation. As soon as Betty spotted Carlotta’s strangled corpse on the sofa, someone chloroformed her from behind; when she came to, the body was gone. Everyone, including Betty’s love interest, has dismissed her story as a fantasy. She hopes that Jack can vindicate her, with the aid of his Scotland Yard friend, Chief Insp. Bill Rackham. The charming and astute Jack, who finds himself drawn to Betty, soon discovers some trace evidence corroborating her story. The crafty plot ends up including multiple murders. Fans of lighthearted puckish sleuths like Peter Wimsey and Albert Campion will enjoy this outing.

June 11, 2012
At the outset of Gordon-Smith’s absorbing sixth Jack Haldean mystery (after 2010’s Off the Record), Jack visits the London home of Harold Rushton Hunt, the elderly owner of Hunt Coffee, who asks the unofficial detective’s help in finding his great-nephew, Mark Helston. On the evening of January 9, 1925, Helston, an employee of the family firm, left his flat, and no one has seen him since. The local police who investigated were baffled, so Jack tells Hunt he has little hope of succeeding, but he agrees to take the case. As Jack starts to interview other members of the Hunt family, more than one of whom turns up dead, he uncovers a trail that leads to the coffee plantations of Brazil. While some readers may bog down in the abundant details, Sherlock Holmes fans will enjoy how the intricate plot builds to a particularly satisfying solution.

August 1, 2012
A clever sleuth's efforts to find a missing man involve him in murder. H.R. Hunt, the head of Hunt Coffee Limited, wants Jack Haldean, a World War I pilot turned mystery writer and amateur sleuth, to find his vanished great-nephew Mark Helston. Although the police have concluded that Mark left for reasons of his own, Haldean (Off the Record, 2011, etc.) agrees, despite his reservations, to look for him. Mark and his sister Pat inherited a large amount of money from their grandmother, most of it going to Mark. Pat, who's been collecting an income from her share, would inherit it all if Mark was proved dead. A body Haldean finds in a deserted house is identified as that of the Brazilian who managed the Hunt coffee plantation. Suddenly Mark is a murder suspect. The case becomes even more confusing when Pat's first husband, Larry Tyrell, who was reported killed in the war, turns up claiming amnesia. Pat's current husband, Greg Jaggard, loves her despite their often rocky relationship and is suspicious that Tyrell's appeared now that Pat may be in line for a fortune. H.R. Hunt has a pal of Haldean's looking for reasons for the company's suspiciously low profits, even though Frederick Hunt, who currently runs the business, is untroubled by them. When a company secretary is murdered and Haldean finds Mark buried under another man's name, Jaggard is arrested for murder. Haldean doesn't believe in Jaggard's guilt, but it will be tough to prove him innocent. A classic mystery in the style of Philip Macdonald's Anthony Gethryn stories; complex, insouciant and very British.

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July 1, 2012
Suave, debonair, intelligent, brave, principled, and thoroughly niceMajor Jack Haldean is all these things, and he's gifted at solving mysteries. His excellent reputation is exactly why he finds himself, in late 1925, in the plush London drawing room of coffee tycoon H. R. Hunt, who wants Jack to find out what happened to Hunt's nephew, Mark Helston, who disappeared several months earlier. The dependable Helston was in line to take over Hunt Coffee from his uncle, so why would he disappear without a trace? The police are mystified, but since a rather large inheritance was involved, they figure Helston's disappearance could have been tied to the money. As Jack starts to investigate, he finds only dead ends. Then a body is found in an abandoned house, and Jack fears the worst. As the mystery deepens and the body count mounts, Jack feels pressure from multiple directions.. Thoroughly researchedincluding the slang of the dayand cleverly plotted, Gordon-Smith's latest installment in the Jack Haldean series is compelling, surprising, and always entertaining.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2014
Dashing Major Jack Haldean returns in this classic British murder mystery set in London between the wars. The story begins as Jack and his friend, Bill Rackham, a chief inspector at Scotland Yard, attend an exhibition organized by Lythewell and Askern, a respected firm dealing in church art. Colin Askern, son of one of the owners, is there with a young woman, Betty Wingate, a distant relation of his stepmother. The next day, Betty appears at Scotland Yard, claiming she's seen the dead body of a woman at Beech View Cottage, which is near the Lythewell's home and where the mysterious Signora Bianchi is staying. Everyone thinks Betty has had a bad dream, but Haldean, already smitten by Betty, promises to investigate. In a case that turns incredibly complex, Haldean finds himself involved with murder, blackmail, mistaken identities, and a hidden fortune. Fans of Agatha Christie and dedicated Anglophiles will enjoy this entertaining and well-wrought traditional mystery, which will keep readers guessing until the very last page.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

June 1, 2014
An amateur sleuth falls for a murder suspect. Accompanying his pal DCI Bill Rackham to a London showing of work by the firm Lythewell and Askern, Church Artists, Maj. Jack Haldean finds the dull exhibit enlivened by (1) Bill's acquaintance with Colin Askern, whom he met in a World War I trench; (2) the presence of Betty Wingate, an attractive poor relation taken in by Daniel Lythewell; and (3) the sudden collapse of a charity flag seller on the steps of the exhibit hall. When Betty comes to Scotland Yard looking for help, Bill brings her to Jack with an unlikely story about a dead woman on the sofa of the cottage of Signora Bianchi, a femme fatale who seems to be involved with both Colin and his father. No body is found, and Betty is dismissed as an attention seeker. But Jack and Bill, visiting the cottage, find evidence that she may be telling the truth. Jack's clever explanation of what might have happened to the signora is smashed when she turns up alive and well. A firestorm ensues when the signora reveals that she was, and legally still is, married to the senior Askern, and Colin is her son. The sleuthing duo remain involved while Jack investigates the secrets of a wildly overblown unconsecrated chantry that was built by Daniel Lythewell's father as a monument to himself. The chantry's floor contains a series of inset metal plates with cryptic hints of a missing treasure. When the flag seller and a church artist are murdered, Betty looks more and more like the prime suspect. While not up to the gold standard set by the best of the classic mysteries, Gordon-Smith's eighth return to the past (Blood From a Stone, 2013, etc.) provides plenty of between-the-wars atmosphere and a surfeit of red herrings.

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July 1, 2014

Handsome Jack Haldean, mystery writer, and his buddy DI William (Bill) Rackham, from Scotland Yard, stumble into an odd little scenario that morphs into a multigenerational web of deception. It starts innocently enough at an exhibition of Christian art hosted by the firm Lythewell and Askern, where Jack and Bill meet the players. Later, the plot thickens when Colin Askern's girlfriend (and Daniel Lythewell's niece) Betty Wingate swears she saw a murdered woman in a local cottage. A bit smitten, Jack believes her, and he convinces Bill to check out the cottage. The duo discover enough to set a murder investigation in process, despite no body being on the scene. Add a hidden message written in rhyme (just begging to be decoded) and expect several of the firm's members to behave most suspiciously. VERDICT Set in the 1920s and written in traditional British style, Gordon-Smith's eighth series entry (after Blood from a Stone) delights with its deftly juggled subplots and smashing conclusion. Think Dorothy Sayers when recommending to readers.

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